Testing of offenders’ levels of English and maths so progress made on the inside can be measured, with results published in new prison league tables

A new duty on the secretary of state to intervene when prisons are failing

No-fly zones over prisons to stop drones dropping off drugs and contraband

Warnings have also come from prisoners on the inside, with one inmate at London’s Pentonville telling the BBC that knives are flown in by drones and razors are melted into toothbrushes to make weapons.

Shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon said Ms Truss needed to “regain the trust of prison governors and prison officers” with her speech.

“Without a comprehensive plan to deal with these issues then her speech will be nothing more than empty words and a blatant PR stunt.”

Mr Gillan said: “We all know the statistics – Liz Truss herself has conceded… to us in a meeting that the prisons are full of violence and in some cases out of control.

“She concedes that they are awash with drugs and that we have many problems within our system. That’s why we’ve said we want the here and now dealt with, and the health and safety of prisoners and staff. And that’s not being addressed”.

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Officers work with “some of the most vulnerable, disaffected, violent members of society”

Dame Sally Coates, a former head teacher who carried out a review of education in prisons for the government earlier this year, said the extra officers pledge is “probably not going to be enough, but it’s a start”.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme officers should be trained to be more than just “turn keys” whose only job is to lock people up.

Dame Sally said: “If we are really really going to change prisons… they have to be able to do more than that – they are working with some of the most vulnerable, disaffected, violent members of society and yet they’re often unskilled, untrained, have very little personal or professional development.”

Ms Truss said her reform plans addressed not just violence in prison, but reoffending rates.

She said: “Within a year almost 50% of those who’ve just left prison are likely to commit another crime. And that costs £15 billion to society and of course huge human misery.

“So as well as getting the violence down, my reform plans are designed to get prisoners into work, off drugs, get the education they need – so that when they leave prison they contribute to society rather than committing crime”.

Last month, Ms Truss announced an extra 400 prison officers would be recruited, which means there will be 2,500 new recruits joining the service altogether.

In echoes of her predecessor Michael Gove’s reform plans, Ms Truss is also planning to give governors more say over how their prisons are run and make sure they are held to account for levels of reoffending and drug misuse.

If jails are assessed to be failing, the justice secretary will have a new legal duty to intervene.